I'm totally new to this sewing thing. Ever since I was 14 and figured out my curves were not how storebought clothing was made. I have a memory block of most of my childhood up until I was about 12 or 13 - I do remember my grandmother sewed, and working with my sewing machine (that my wonderful husband bought me for Christmas) things seem to be very familiar to me. If I have sewed before, I haven't since I was around 8 or so, but I've been noticing if nothing else my seems are entirely too straight to have just started sewing. So in a way, I'm teaching myself how to sew, whether I've sewed before will be a mystery for me since no one is around anymore to ask.

Love, love, love that skirt! The placement of the two seams in the front is very flattering. And you are brave to try pants - and they look really cute. Would you consider a tutorial for how you drafted the pattern for your skirt??

Maybe you are just a natural sewist! The skirt looks great - I love the decorative stitch on the hem. And the pants are really fun. Where did you find the fabric? It looks like bandana fabric! Very nicely done!

So what are you going to make next with your newly (re)discovered skills?

hahaha I found the material at Joann's in the quilting section - it's a quilters flannel and so soft and comfy! I've noticed that much of the material I'm attracted to to make skirts or something else out of tends to be in the quilting section of the store - I guess that should be telling me something, but I'm not listening!

Hmmm a tutorial for the skirt - lemme see if I can get this right. The only thing I had on paper was the math - I think I need to be more astute in my plans if I'm going to learn more on how to make my own patterns

Okay my waist is 41.5" so I round up to 42", my hips are a very generous 52", so I made 6 panels of triangles (not sure if that's what their called in the sewing world, but that's kinda what they were) with 10" width on the top of the triangle. I wanted each triangle to be a finished width of 24", with the theory of the hem being 144" around when finished. I'm somewhat tall (5' 7.5") so I wanted to make sure the skirt was long enough - I made the panels 46" (this was my first mistake) since I love LONG skirts. After sewing them together I cut another length of fabric that was 54" x 2" (another place I went wrong). Now this is ALL wrong (I know this now after making the pants following a pattern) - I sewed the long piece of fabric onto the skirt on the outside of the skirt at the top, then folded it over and sewed it - left a small opening and inserted the elastic that I'd cut too long Soooo my skirt ended up being way too big in several ways. If I was at least 6" taller and 50 pounds heavier it would've fit.

Then I cut the waistband off the top of the skirt, cutting into the top of the skirt enough to shorten it for my height. I cut another length of fabric that I didn't measure with measuring tape, but held against the top of the skirt, then doubled it, the fabric was 3" wide (better). I then did the same butchering to sewing it to the skirt, fortunately I wear my tops out since tucking something in seriously cuts me in half - so no one can see my waistband

hahaha the hem, I like the hem too - it came out pretty cute. It was one of those "uh oh, what do I do now!?!" when I was trying to figure out how to hem the skirt. Since I had been "playing" I hadn't bothered to get thread in any color other than white since I live a bit in the boonies and the store close to us only has white thread for sewing machine thread. I realized my hem was going to show so I better do something more than a zig zag stitch

Thank you all so much for your compliments - that really helps so much in learning. My husband is very complimentary but he's such a sweet man, whenever I mention something negative about myself such as my weight for example he doesn't agree with me or disagree - he says "you're cute!". He loves the skirt and the pants, but he's my marvelously sweet husband that would adore anything I make (as I am with him).

The pants were a lot of fun to make - I'm thinking for my next project I'd love to use a pants pattern and adjust it to make a split skirt. I adore split skirts! I'm wondering though if I should put that off for a while until I learn how to alter a pattern for my size. These pants I made are great, I really like them - they are fine for lounge pants, but unfortunately they are REALLY baggy in my stomach, and the waistband is way too high making me have to roll the top of it, or else the waistband is uncomfortably high as soon as I pull them up, but as soon as I move the crotch of the pants falls to about halfway down my thighs.

Is your skirt pull on? If so, I need to be concerned with my hip measurement, not my waist. . . I really like the line and flare of your skirt - and the two front seams. . . And I totally understand how skirts come out different sized than you are. . . one of my first - I cut the elastic the size of my waist - turned out HUGE. Now I leave the waistband open and tighten on my body! ;-)

On the topic of pants - are you going to try pants again? Your post inspired me to browse pants patterns - since I can never find any to fit - but then I wimped out. . . I've gotta work up some courage. . .

On the topic of pants - are you going to try pants again? Your post inspired me to browse pants patterns - since I can never find any to fit - but then I wimped out. . . I've gotta work up some courage. . .

But a great skirt - that I will do!

With a nice fitting top, skirts look great! Also dresses that tie in the back so you can cinch the waist look wonderful. I also found that one of my Simplicity dress patterns (sorry can't remember the number - it's on my table at home, I'll look tonight when I get home from work) has different cup sizes! I'm very stoked about that since I wear a DD, unfortunately the pattern only goes to a D, but I'm going to look at it and see if I can fudge it. I don't know how to do a bust alteration yet, but I'm hoping I can figure it out soon - but for now I'm excited to start on that dress!